Pros and cons of working with stones
A beautiful, diverse-looking, eco-friendly material for various types of crafts is stone. Works made from it are durable. There are stones of different colors, shapes, sizes.
This allows you to make crafts from stones with your own hands for various purposes. In most cases, you can find material for work right under your feet.
If you use rare, beautiful variations, you can get real masterpieces. The only drawback of the stone is the low flexibility of the material.
To process it, you will have to make a lot of effort, and you can only work with special tools.
However, it is not necessary to change the natural format. The form given by nature often hides a special charm. It is enough to take a closer look at different specimens.
Features of Japanese gardens
The Japanese rock garden is a recreation area created with your own hands, where stones, sand, water and plants are beautifully harmoniously combined. A person, entering such a garden, as well as a garden in the English landscape style, finds harmony with nature. You can create a mini version of a Japanese rock garden on your own site. There you and your family will be able to retire in a calm environment, relax and concentrate. Let's give some tips on what style you should follow in the process of creating your “corner of peace”:
- combine stone and water (symbols of masculine and feminine principles);
- adhere to asymmetry;
- use plants for decoration.
Technologies suitable for the job
When figuring out how to make a craft from stones, you can use ready-made ideas. Often the technologies for making products are simple and do not require skill.
It is enough to take a close look at the raw materials and select the right specimens for the job. Often crafts are performed according to the following principles:
- Mosaic. Using pebbles of different types, beautiful pictures are laid out. This can be done on the ground, in cement mortar or on a base by gluing the material. To achieve the result, you can limit yourself to a natural appearance, and also perform coloring.
- Combination. You can create using any technique, using not only natural elements. Natural and artificial specimens are combined well, and various pieces of glass, shards, fragments of bricks, and shells are also used. Additionally, bark, wood, moss, acorns, chestnuts and other natural and man-made materials can be included in the composition.
- Sculptures. To make three-dimensional figures, it is not necessarily difficult to work on stones. It is enough to carefully select the appropriate parts to create a single whole.
- Complex processing. Cutting, faceting and other difficult influences can only be done by specialists. To make jewelry, decorative, ready-to-use pieces are used. You can replace natural stones with epoxy resin. This material makes magical-looking products, and working with it is not difficult.
In any case, stone creations look charming and monolithic. They can easily decorate both indoors and outdoors. Stone products are classics. They are always popular, never go out of fashion, and inspire admiration.
Garden sculptures
Stone (especially with rounded edges) allows you to create a variety of garden figures. If you have no experience in such work, then you can start with simple products. In particular, round stones are used to decorate the site, which are painted to look like ladybugs or other fauna.
To make more complex figures, you will need:
- Glue. For compact figures, it is recommended to use universal compositions such as “Momenta”. If large-scale work is planned, you will need a glue gun and a set of polymer sticks.
- Paints. Acrylics are suitable for creating temporary figures. These paints are non-toxic and dry quickly. To create figures that glow in the dark, fluorescent compounds are used. If long-lasting structures are being built that will be exposed to ultraviolet radiation, then silicone-based paints should be used.
- Protective coatings. For garden figurines, epoxy or alkyd varnishes are mainly used.
If the shape of the available stones does not allow you to create the desired figures, then it is recommended to purchase architectural concrete. This construction mixture is based on cement and sand, which are “diluted” with inorganic and mineral components.
Difference in the scale of creativity
The size and scope of a stone craft for the garden and a product for a children's exhibition can differ significantly. In this case, labor costs will also be different.
- A small craft can be completed in an hour,
- And a large product sometimes takes more than 1 day to create.
Children cannot work with boulders or create garden paths or gabions. Even a child can work with small pebbles, sand, and shells under the guidance of an adult.
Decoration of reservoirs
Natural and artificial stones are used when decorating ponds in garden plots for two purposes: creating a decorative layer that adorns the perimeter, and strengthening the banks against the loss of soil during floods and rain. Country ponds, regardless of size and shape, are manufactured in several stages.
First, a hole of the required depth is dug in an illuminated and at the same time shaded area. Then a specialized film is placed on the bottom and sides, which is sold in construction stores. At the end of the procedure, large and small cobblestones are deepened into the walls along the perimeter. After this, the pond is filled with water.
Simple children's figures and applications
The simplest crafts from sea stones or any other analogues are not difficult to make. The most important thing: come up with an idea. To implement it, you will need to take a good look at the existing material.
Surely, there will be pebbles of all kinds of formats. Select options that can serve as details.
It can be:
- Pens,
- legs,
- Ears
- And other parts of the reproduced object.
Next, the elements are secured in the chosen method. Typically, glue is used for this purpose, designed for reliable fixation of solid objects.
Elementary children's crafts
It’s easy to create beautiful decor from stones without putting in a lot of effort. It is enough to choose a base that is convenient for creativity.
- It should be a smooth pebble of sufficient size.
- Paints are used for decoration. Of course, this is not ordinary watercolor or gouache.
- An acrylic version or building enamel will do.
- The drawing is done independently or using a stencil.
- You can paint a picture on an object or turn it into an animal, a person, or a flower.
Curbs
Stone borders are used for zoning the site. In particular, these structures allow you to fence off flower beds, preventing the soil from falling off. Laying stone borders is carried out according to the algorithm described above.
For such designs it is recommended to use:
- shell rock;
- limestone;
- sandstone.
During installation, the voids that appear between large cobblestones can be filled with small stones.
Pictures made of stones
Using stones, you can create entire pictures. You don't need any special skill to do this.
- The foundation is prepared for work. Usually this is a piece of plywood, a board or very thick cardboard.
- The contours of the drawing are applied to the base.
- Using the present image, they select pebbles that will make up the surface of the picture.
- The material can be sorted as much as possible by parameters, color, and other characteristics.
- After this, all the parts are glued one by one to the selected places.
- This way you can lay out not only the main object, but also create details and a frame.
Decorative figures
Good crafts made from shells and stones can be used as decoration.
- By gluing the parts to each other, a complete object is assembled.
- These can be animals, natural motifs, people.
- For maximum realism, the result can be painted in the desired colors.
- Such crafts will act as both a decoration and an exhibit for a children's exhibition.
The stones only seem cold and faceless. In fact, this is an excellent material for creativity. Working with them will not cause problems if you set feasible tasks.
Cacti in a pot
To make this craft you will need a small flower pot, several different sized pebbles, paint, and a brush.
If you decorate a pot, it is better to make it not flashy, so as not to distract attention from the central part of the composition - stone cacti. An ideal decor for a pot would be twine, tightly wrapped in a spiral along the entire height of the pot; you can tie a ribbon on top of the twine and tie a small bow.
Fill the pot with coarse sand, lay out pieces of moss and place several pebbles, pre-painted green, vertically among them. Don't forget to draw needles on the resulting cacti.
